Difference between revisions of "2411: 1/10,000th Scale World"

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Models of large-scale objects (cars, airplanes, etc.) are typically produced at a given scale, given as a ratio between the original object (the first number) and the model (the second number). The same applies to maps and globes. What Randall has here, though, is neither a map nor a model but a seemingly complete copy of Earth, at a 1:10,000 scale. Various features and warnings are labeled.
 
Models of large-scale objects (cars, airplanes, etc.) are typically produced at a given scale, given as a ratio between the original object (the first number) and the model (the second number). The same applies to maps and globes. What Randall has here, though, is neither a map nor a model but a seemingly complete copy of Earth, at a 1:10,000 scale. Various features and warnings are labeled.
  
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Real-world phenomena are reproduced at scale, for humorous effect. A real 1/10,000th scale "Earth" would have a diameter of less than a mile, and a surface area of around 10 miles, the approximate dimensions of a medium-sized asteroid. On such an object, constrained by known physics, there would be no air, standing water, weather, or large magma bodies, and any sort of rough-housing would irrecoverably catapult the visitor into space. The scenario depicted better fits the case of Earth at 1x and the visitors at 10,000x. The biological consequences of such a scenario would be unfortunate - as if humans weren't already doing enough environmental damage.
+
Real-world phenomena are reproduced at scale, for humorous effect. A real 1/10,000th scale "Earth" would have a diameter of less than a mile, and a surface area of around 10 miles, the approximate dimensions of a medium-sized asteroid. On such an object, constrained by known physics, there would be no air, standing water, weather, or large magma bodies, and any sort of rough-housing would irrecoverably catapult the visitor into space. The scenario depicted better fits the case of Earth at 1x and the visitors at 10,000x. The biological consequences of such a scenario would be unfortunate - as if humans weren't already doing enough environmental damage. Assuming that a human on a 1x Earth weighing 750 tons would be able to do anything but instantly collapse and suffocate.
  
 
There are warnings to prevent the visitors from accidentally doing something cataclysmic. Likewise, the "ocean play area rules" in the title text tell visitors not to create any {{w|megatsunami}}s, which could conceivably be induced by a cannonball dive.
 
There are warnings to prevent the visitors from accidentally doing something cataclysmic. Likewise, the "ocean play area rules" in the title text tell visitors not to create any {{w|megatsunami}}s, which could conceivably be induced by a cannonball dive.

Revision as of 05:32, 14 January 2021

1/10,000th Scale World
OCEAN PLAY AREA RULES: No running, no horseplay, no megatsunamis, and no trying to pry the wreck of the Titanic off the bottom.
Title text: OCEAN PLAY AREA RULES: No running, no horseplay, no megatsunamis, and no trying to pry the wreck of the Titanic off the bottom.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a 1/10,000TH SCALE WEATHER BALLOON. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

Models of large-scale objects (cars, airplanes, etc.) are typically produced at a given scale, given as a ratio between the original object (the first number) and the model (the second number). The same applies to maps and globes. What Randall has here, though, is neither a map nor a model but a seemingly complete copy of Earth, at a 1:10,000 scale. Various features and warnings are labeled.

Real-world phenomena are reproduced at scale, for humorous effect. A real 1/10,000th scale "Earth" would have a diameter of less than a mile, and a surface area of around 10 miles, the approximate dimensions of a medium-sized asteroid. On such an object, constrained by known physics, there would be no air, standing water, weather, or large magma bodies, and any sort of rough-housing would irrecoverably catapult the visitor into space. The scenario depicted better fits the case of Earth at 1x and the visitors at 10,000x. The biological consequences of such a scenario would be unfortunate - as if humans weren't already doing enough environmental damage. Assuming that a human on a 1x Earth weighing 750 tons would be able to do anything but instantly collapse and suffocate.

There are warnings to prevent the visitors from accidentally doing something cataclysmic. Likewise, the "ocean play area rules" in the title text tell visitors not to create any megatsunamis, which could conceivably be induced by a cannonball dive.

Earlier comics illustrating relative scale include 482: Height, 681: Gravity Wells, 1276: Angular Size, and 1389: Surface Area.

Danger Why Notes
Watch out for airliners cruising near shoulder level I am just setting out the basic layout for everyone else. Feel free to change the text, this is all just placeholder.
Trip hazard: Appalachian Mountains At half a foot tall, the Appalachians could trip visitors who are not being careful. 6684 ft = 0.67 ft in model world
Do not stand or climb on Mt. Everest One may destroy the model.
Caution: Hydro-thermal vents underfoot Hydrothermal vents are extremely hot, which could cause burns to the feet of the viewers Underwater volcanoes and stuff
Children must be supervised while in the ocean, especially near trenches They might drown. The Challenger Deep is 36,200 feet below the surface; this equates to 3.62 feet in the model world, a depth which small children could conceivably drown in.
Danger: positive lightning! Do not touch cloud tops The cumulonimbus cloud is an electrocution hazard, as Megan is learning the hard way: Getting too close to the positive cloud tops risks causing lightning to arc into you down to the negative ground.
Avoid hypoxia by regularly sitting to bring your lungs below the death zone The scale world even has a scale atmosphere, and visitors are cautioned to regularly sit down so they can breathe below the death zone, which is approximately two and a half feet above the surface. The death zone is approximately 8,000 meters above the ground, equating to 0.8 meters or 2.62 feet in the model world.
Do not dig near Yellowstone Digging up the Yellowstone Caldera could potentially reactivate the supervolcano there.
Please do not smack weather balloons It's not very nice
Be careful not to step on cities with especially pointy towers, like Toronto, Seattle, and Dubai Pointy things hurt There's a note "not to step on cities with especially pointy towers," although this seems to be exclusively for the visitors' benefit, rather than that of the cities.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

RULES

For visitors to my 1/10,000th scale world

1 meter = 10 km 1 ft = 10,000 ft ~ 2 miles

Watch out for airliners cruising near shoulder level

Trip hazard: Appalachian Mountains

Do not stand or climb on Mt. Everest

Caution: Hydro-thermal vents underfoot

Children must be supervised while in the ocean, especially near trenches

Danger: positive lightning! Do not touch cloud tops

Avoid hypoxia by regularly sitting to bring your lungs below the death zone

Do not dig near Yellowstone

Please do not smack weather balloons

Be careful not to step on cities with especially pointy towers, like Toronto, Seattle, and Dubai



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Discussion

This sounds like a cool theme for a game jam. Bwisey (talk) 07:30, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

The comment about airplanes being close to the speed of a bullet in the explanation wouldn't be relevant due to the scale, so they wouldn't be fast compared to the scale of the people here, and with some rough calculations, I think it would take multiple seconds to pass through the thickness of a human body, so if the people were normal properties and the plane moving at its speed being proportional to its scale (thus making its speed seem normal from the perspective of someone shrunk down and on the plane looking at the rate at which it travels compared to its own length or looking at the model surroundings rather than the giant person), it shouldn't cause significant injury. Granted, as such speeds it wouldn't be able to fly, but the same sort of concerns apply to a lot else here, like the thundercloud and the rate the atmosphere gets thinner at altitude.--162.158.74.207 07:54, 14 January 2021 (UTC)


"Also, airplane speed very similar to the speed at which a bullet is fired" - That is true for real world aircraft; it is not at all given for the 1/10000th scale world. (It depends on if time is scaled or just spatial dimensions) 162.158.134.84 09:59, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

The rant about private vs public research seems a tad coat-racky. Yngvadottir (talk) 12:08, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

I agree, so I removed it. There's no indication that Randall meant anything more by it than the usually fun activity of playing with balloons would be harmful if done to weather balloons. Bischoff (talk) 13:45, 14 January 2021 (UTC)


Do disasters in the model have consequences in the real Earth, like in the first row of xkcd #1515? Not being allowed to create megatsunamis or trigger the Yellowstone Supervolcano would support this, but being allowed to step on cities that do not have especially pointy towers would oppose it.162.158.186.220 14:07, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

This, ladies, gents, and variations thereupon, is the xkcd I know and love. Lightcaller (talk) 14:34, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

I would really like this on a poster. 172.68.57.33 16:12, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

That'd be good. In large format. (Though, if it's a 10,000:1 scale printing I see a couple of problems.) 141.101.99.19 21:16, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

Wouldn't an airplane be to the people about twice the speed of a garden snail? Sarah the Pie(yes, the food) (talk)

A model Airbus A380 would be about 7.3 mmm long but the scale factor for its volume and mass (assuming it has the same overall density as a full size one) would be 1:1,000,000,000,000 so its mass would be about half a milligramme! I'm not sure where 'half a kilogram' came from.
I thought comparisons of scale were an oft-revisited theme for xkcd, so was disappointed not to find a category for them; though I tried to list some of them, I didn't find nearly as many of them as I thought there ought to be. Only just noticed the reference in discussion here to 1515, which kind of supports my suspicion that there are lots I didn't find. --Pi one (talk) 17:06, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

I like how the curvature of the world is drawn to scale as well. IE: imperceptibly curved. 108.162.216.182 17:13, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

Probably not actually related to the comic, but the notes in the explanation about how "earth on this scale would be the size of an asteroid" made me think of the Little Prince, which Randall is known to be fond of. -MeZimm 162.158.74.85 18:26, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

For comparison the Queen's Museum model of NY City is at a scale of 1:1,200. 1:10,000 maps of many areas are available, so you could lay out a county or so in your living room. Not as good as a model but still interesting.173.245.54.121 22:33, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

As recently added to the explanation, but in case anyone missed it and yet would finds it of interest: http://www.mapascotland.org/ 162.158.155.85 22:41, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

This reminds me of the planet Dwarf Terrace-9 from Rick and Morty. Possible reference? 173.245.54.19 23:59, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

A fun bit of trivia I noticed is that the Kármán line (the "edge of spaaaace") would be a little below the height of a typical utility pole (10.67 m).108.162.245.82 00:36, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

Usual models are fragile ; however, I wonder if Randalls scaled copy of Earth, apparently with enough gravity to have atmosphere and with planes capable of flight despite being very slow, would somehow be more sturdy and feature cities which you wouldn't be able to damage by stepping on them. THAT may be the reason why the rules are mostly for protection of the guests: airplanes and weather balloons may be only things they can damage directly, however the tsunami and volcanoes are still dangerous. -- Hkmaly (talk) 11:00, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

Imagine the cities being made of LEGO bricks. Not like the buildings built from LEGO bricks but that single LEGO bricks (or other LEGO pieces) ARE the builidngs. Ever stepped on a LEGO brick barefooted? It hurts AF... Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 12:13, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

Could the scale aircraft imply that Randall has created 1:10000 humans to fly them? These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 04:47, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Am I the only one who thinks this genuinely sounds like a fun exhibit/theme park? Or is that part of the intention of the comic? 108.162.219.54

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